


Murder at The ACC

by loochskywalker



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Blood, Complete misunderstanding of generators, Crack, Dialogue Heavy, Future Fic, Gen, Minor Character Death, Murder, Murder Mystery, Retirement, Reunion, ghosts at some point, happy halloween! :), not here but, they're in a back story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 03:01:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12572272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loochskywalker/pseuds/loochskywalker
Summary: Zach Hyman still remembers what it was like to win The Stanley Cup at twenty-seven, he can still feel that glory and thrill, the weight of the trophy in his hands. Unfortunately, all things must come to an end and twenty-one years later he's no longer Zach Hyman of the Toronto Maple leafs, but Detective Hyman of the Ontario Provincial Police. He never expected these two parts of his life to mix but when head coach Auston Matthews invites him and the rest of the winning team for a reunion, he can't help but be excited for the day off.It doesn't take long for Detective Hyman to realize that these men he put his body on the line for every night have changed more than he could have imagined. Because apparently when you mix together Ex-NHLers, frequent power outages, and a new rookie phenom, you end up with murder.





	Murder at The ACC

**Author's Note:**

> This started as a joke and then turned into an actual thing so here you go. It's still kind of a joke. It's silly and stupid and it is a murder mystery so that part is a bummer but i also kind of went crazy with ridiculousness here. So yes a person dies, but all that's really mentioned is that he's lying in a puddle of blood so not graphic descriptions beyond that however if you don't like blood be warned. 
> 
> Also i know nothing about generators so if there's anything that doesn't make sense. ignore it. because also there are ghosts here so we can have generators that work the way i say they do. also on the same note. there are no detectives in the OPP but let's pretend there are because this is supposed to be a play on detective novels and just because it takes place in canada doesn't mean i have to let go of that dream.
> 
> ANYWAY please enjoy and thanks to those who edited it for me. and Happy Halloween!!

It was a cold and rainy November day when I arrived at the Air Canada Centre. It was my old stomping grounds and the dry, icy air reminded me of my own playing career, a winger to the NHL’s best. It hadn’t changed much; I could still see the champagne stains in the locker room and the ghosts of my past teammates in their stalls. It had been a long time since I first walked in here, but it still felt like coming home.

“Ah, Detective Hyman!” I turned to shake the hand of my one time accomplice, Auston Matthews. Now the coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, he had aged into a distinguished man with a long scar along his jaw, but I could recognize him anywhere. 

“It’s been years, Auston,” I said back, shaking his hand. His grip was firm and rough, not unlike mine. How odd it was, to touch a man who I used to spend every day with, familiar but so distant. 

“Far too long,” Auston agreed, “I’m glad you could make it, I feared no one would show when I issued the invitation but it felt like a good time. My players have been struggling as of late, and while we made the playoffs last year I fear that we will not meet that same fate again. Meeting the last Toronto Maple Leafs team to win the cup would improve their morale, and they could really use it.”

“Surprised you got Marner to come, after the success he had as Pastrnak’s right hand man in Boston, I would have thought his loyalty would lie with the Bruins! One Stanley Cup can really bring men together, but he won three with them and 5 Hart trophies. Everyone thought he just couldn’t deal with living in your shadow.”

Auston rubbed his chiseled jaw, his fingertips lingering on the scar on his face, “You know, Zach, old friends always come when you call.”

“How true that is,” I told him with a nod, “Has anyone else arrived?”

“Not yet,” Auston said, “although you always were one of the first to show up.”

“I take my commitments seriously, Auston, you know that. Hard work gets you very far in life, but people only give you the chance to work hard if you prove you are reliable and consistent,” I told him, “Maybe that’s a lesson I can pass on to your players.”

“They’re good men,” Auston said, pressing his large hand into his chest, right over his heart. “I feel like they’re my own sons, they just need a little bit of motivation. It’s hard after the past few seasons these guys have had, but they’re doing their best. At least we’re not as bad as the Kessel era,” Auston chuckled.

I laughed along with him; as someone who watched the Leafs closely during that era I knew exactly what he meant. “Yes, a shame Kessel went on to open up a chain of restaurants instead of being your assistant coach, I heard you guys were going hard for him.”

“Well, if I can let you in on a little secret,” Auston said, “I’m glad we weren’t able to get him. Lou’s been losing it recently and still refuses to retire, and since no one has the balls to fire him we have to deal with his decisions. I met with Kessel before the contract negotiations started and told him it would be best if he didn’t work with us. We just couldn’t afford it.”

“Ah, so sad to see great men fall,” I said, nodding solemnly.

“Truly,” Auston agreed, “Would you like something to drink? Everything is in the players lounge, the boys will get here around 5, so if the other guys start to show up we’ll have a few hours to ourselves.”

“Sounds like a delightful evening, Auston.” 

 

******

 

MItch arrived around 1:23, just 15 minutes after I had walked through the doors. I barely recognized this man who left the Leafs the season after we won the Stanley Cup. It must have been Mitch though, those blue eyes, those long lashes, it was impossible to miss. He was more of a grizzled vet now than anyone thought he could be at the age of 22. No longer was he lean and pretty, but thick and intimidating. They called it the Boston treatment, and it seemed to have worked for him.

Auston and I had at least kept in touch, but Mitch never said anything to us when he was traded from the Leafs while the rest of us got to stay. The papers said he resented us, that we were able to stay in his home while he was shipped up to Boston. Safe to say I didn’t think the papers were lying. A year after he left, Marty left too, going to Boston to follow his best friend. 

By the look on Auston’s face I could tell he was just as surprised to see Mitch there as I was.

“Ah, Mitch!” Auston said as he approached Mitch to shake his hand the way he had shaken mine. “I didn’t know if you would make it.”

“Said I wouldn’t didn’t I?” Mitch said as he shook Auston’s hand back, “With my private jet, Boston’s only a 45 minute plane ride away; it would have been lazy on my part if I hadn’t come. Being the Bruins Assistant GM is a tiring job, but I still need some days off.”

“That you do,” Auston agreed, “I expected Marty to come with you.”

“He had to stop at the animal shelter on the way here,” Mitch said shaking his head, “the old guy just can’t keep away from those needy animals. I assume he’ll have adopted three more before he arrives.”

“Three is a very conservative bet.”

“Ah, Detective Hyman,” Mitch said when he finally saw me standing near the snack table. 

“Mitch, so nice to see you,” I said, approaching him for my own handshake, “been way too long, old friend.”

“We all take different paths in life,” Mitch said back, far from the agreement Auston had lent me. 

“I am pleased to know you still are in touch with some guys from the old team. Marty was an important part, scoring that OT goal in game seven against the Oilers. Makes sense he was the one who you remained fond off.”

Mitch laughed, a little coldly I noted, “Marty was always the loyal one, yes? Besides, he couldn’t have scored that OT goal in game seven if you hadn’t scored the OT goal in game six. We won that series as a team.”

“That we did.”

“Oh, are those corn chips?” Mitch said, his eyes lighting up as he pushed by me towards the full banquet table. I made note of the fond eyes Auston threw towards his back as he watched him bend over the table. 

Interesting.

 

******

 

Marty arrived dressed down compared to the rest of us. He had worn jeans and soft looking sweater, perfectly accessorized with a backwards baseball cap. Unlike Mitch and Auston, he still looked very similar to the Marty I had played with and still wore that same old smile.

“Detective Hyman! My pleasure,” He was enthusiastic as he shook my hand, “And Matts! So good to see you.” Auston got a hug, which seemed to surprise even him.

“Surprised you made it,” Mitch said, “Thought I would have lost you to the dogs.”

“You haven’t lost me yet,” Marty told him with a sly smile, “You get me anything to drink?”

Mitch held up the cup he had in his hand the past few minutes, “Of course, how could I forget?”

After that the rest of the guys trickled in. Guys I had seen regularly since my early retirement 15 years ago, like Brownie and Freddie. Guys I had seen once or twice since, like Naz, Jake, Nuge, and Mo. And guys I had heard about only in the papers, like Borgman, Kapanen, and Nylander. Either way, Auston had gotten a good amount of the old team back together, enough that I didn’t feel 46 any longer, but 27 and ready to take on the NHL. 

I mingled with the guys, but mostly I watched them mingle with each other. My training as a detective had given me observational skills a regular man would be guilty of, and while I was technically not on the clock I learned very early on that it never hurt to pay attention. For instance, I noticed Kapanen kept checking his phone approximately every 5 minutes and 13 seconds, Rielly and Gardiner never once said a word to each other, and Andersen always stood with a proprietary hand on Brown’s shoulder. 

It was a good thing too, because at approximately 1:57 the lights flickered and shut off.

“What’s going on!” Auston’s voice boomed. It sounded authoritative, not scared.

“It was raining pretty hard when we got here!” Kadri offered.

“Can someone get these lights back on, I can’t see a damn thing,” Mitch hissed.

Mitch was right, it was obscenely dark in the room, with no access to the outside it was pitch black. And while we were all grown men, I could feel the nervousness rising in the room.

“Ah, for fucks sake,” Auston said, “I know this place better than anyone else, I’ll go try to see what’s wrong with the electricity, the rest of you should just stay put.”

“Stay put?” Mitch sounded outraged, “That’s not like me, Auston, I’m coming with!”

“Me too,” said Brownie, “I know this place like the back of my hand.”

“Fine, but just the three of us.”

No one else put up a fight as the three of them left, but the moment the door closed there was more movement.

“I hate the dark!” It was Sosh and it sounded like he was whining.

“We all do!” Gardiner shouted back.

“Speak for yourself,” said Kadri.

I sighed to myself and walked carefully toward where I knew the wall to be, keeping my hand out so I knew when I came in contact with it. I felt safer with my back against something, at least I knew were one other thing besides myself was in this room. Really it was too dark, you’d think they’d have generators going? But I guess not. There must have been some budget cuts or something. 

It was a few minutes later when I saw something out of the corner of my eye, a small light streaming in under a door. My eyes zoned in on it as a dark shadow played across like someone was walking by the door. The steps were slow and considerate, making no noise that I could catch over the anxious murmur. The gait, I noticed, had a practiced rhythm to it and, while it seemed normal, definitely caught my attention. I had no idea where the door had led, in fact I hadn’t even realized there was a door on that end of the room when I first walked in, which was odd seeing as I paid attention to almost everything else that had been going on.

Soon, the light in the room flickered out and I was pulled back into the room by Kapanen touching my face.

“Oh, sorry, Detective, is that you?”

“Yes, Kap, it is,” I said, gently removing his hand from my face.

“I don’t mean to invade your space so fully, but it’s so dark I had no other way of finding you in here. Willy and I were just wondering if you noticed anything suspicious? I mean this just seems off to us! We’ve lost power before in the ACC and it never lasted this long or went this dark! You’d think since we retired things would have gotten better not worse!”

“It did strike me as odd, yes,” I told him, “Auston did tell me that Lou was going a little senile though, it’s quite possible they have implemented unnecessary budget cuts at his request.”

“Quite possible indeed, how sad to hear of that. When we won the Stanley Cup it felt like he was out there with us. I know some people don’t like GM’s that are so involved, but with a man who was a genius like him it’s hard not to think he was just as responsible for our win as Willy was, scoring those 13 goals in the last two series we played.” Kapanen said, “I guess we all need to remember when it’s time to retire.”

“Yes,” I agreed, “but it must be harder to retire for Lou than when we retired. All of us retired and became something else, but this would be the end of the line for him. You know how it feels when you’re done with hockey and forced to retire? How hopeless that feels? Well it must be a lot worse when the only next step is a retirement home.” 

“That’s true. I understand why they don’t fire him, who could? That would just be cruel.” As Kapanen said that the lights came back on. It was so sudden and so bright some of the guys groaned, and I had to lift my arm to shield my eyes. Not that long after there was also a scream from somewhere in the building.

“What was that!” Rielly shouted.

“Maybe someone jumped out and scared Mitch,” Sosh joked, a giggle on his voice.

“That’s just not plausible,” Marty said standing up slowly from the stall he was sitting on, his face concerned, “Mitch hasn’t been scared of anything since The Happening of 2030.”

Everyone looked at him questioning.

“The TD Garden is haunted,” Marty offered, “turns out that the only thing that was keeping Them from disturbing the rest of us was how terrified they were of Rask, and when he quit as the Bruins goalie coach the year before, the ghosts started making life harder and harder for us. It was the last time I had actually seen Mitch scared of anything, then he dealt with the problem.” 

“North Americans are still weird,” Sosh offered. 

A few moments later the door from the locker room was thrown open. All of us jumped when a disheveled looking Marner pushed his way through.

“What happened?” He asked, flustered.

“What do you mean?”

“The screaming,” he sounded out of breath, “it was coming from where I had lost track of Auston and Brown, has anyone seen them? Where are they?”

“No idea,” I told him, “you’re the first one to return.”

“I have a bad feeling about this.” Mitch shook his head, “Auston said they’ve been having power problems recently but that the generator usually has no problem powering the building until the lights come back on their own. He said it was taking longer and longer for the generator to work recently. I didn’t like the sound of it.”

“You think something happened because of the power outage?”

“I’m not sure,” Mitch said, “I just know I was feeling uneasy, I somehow lost them in the dark, and then I saw a light coming from a room over there.” He pointed back behind him with a thumb. I followed where he was pointing and saw the door I hadn’t noticed before, “I started walking towards it when the lights came on and I found myself in the locker room and just came back here as quick as I could when I heard the scream. There’s something going on.”

“I saw the light too,” I told Mitch. “Someone needs to find Matthews and Brown.”

“That won’t be necessary, Detective.” I turned on my heel to see Auston was standing there, Brown right by his side. Both of them were panting as they held the door open, “We need you, right away.”

“Me?” I asked.

“Yes, there’s been...there’s been an accident...with one of my players.” As he said this I noticed the genuine heart break in his voice. My heart rate spiked; what had gone wrong?

“Show the way, Auston!” I said.

Auston led me, hurried through the halls of the ACC. The lights that hung above us flickered here and there as we pushed through the double doors in front of us. It felt like the old days, Auston and I rushing down the halls, side by side. I could almost feel the ice beneath my feet, and hear the roar of the crowd. Those were the days, and how I wished we were still back there, as this rush ended in front of a pool of blood instead of a goal horn.

A young man no older than twenty laid in front of me, his arms splayed out to his sides and his face turned into the floor, his cheek turning a crimson as he layed in the blood. He would have looked like he was sleeping if it hadn’t been for the blue lips, and the eerie stillness of his chest.

“O’Ryan,” Auston sniffled from next to me, “he’s a rookie, only nineteen years old. He reminded me so much of myself, I thought he was going to be the next big thing. He’s done so well this year. And off the ice too, his teammates love him, like a little brother. I always worried how well he’d do without any other rookies with him, I know how well that worked out for us. But he was thriving.”

“I’m so sorry, Auston,” I said, “I’m going to need to call in reinforcements,”

Auston nodded gravely, “of course.”

 

********

 

“It’s a good thing you were so close to the crime scene,” Sergeant Bernard said as the rest of our men surveyed the area. “You were so quick that we were able to shut down all the entrances and exits to this building and we’ve set up guards at every doorway. The man who killed Jack O’Ryan is still in this building and we believe he’s one of the men who attended this reunion you were invited to.”

“You really think they could do something like that? We’re all hockey players, even I saw myself in this kid and I know nothing about him. It must be someone else. One of the vendors? Or someone who snuck in off the street?”

“Everyone else had solid alibis,” Bernard said, “The only people who had access to this area of the building with enough time to commit the murder were the men in the players lounge with you. You’re the best detective we have, we’ll give you updates on the evidence that we find but I suspect you’ll be able to take it from here?”

“Of course,” I told Bernard, “these men may be my old friends, but I take my job more seriously than anyone else. This is getting solved and I won’t stop until I have the correct man behind bars.”

“We can always count on you,” Bernard nodded. “I’ve had all the men quarantined into the locker room while we look for evidence in the players lounge. One of those men in there are to be held accountable for this crime.”

I nodded.

“And Hyman,”

“Yes sir?”

“I shouldn’t have to tell you that you’re included in that group.”

I nodded again, “The only person who knows I didn’t do it is myself, but anyone could say that.”

“Exactly. Off you go Hyman.”

I hurried off towards the locker room at that, and was easily let into the locker room by the two guards standing in front of the door. Inside the room were all my ex teammates plus another officer I worked with, Constable Craig Ward. 

“I have to be somewhere else, are you kidding me?” Nugent-Hopkins was usually a quiet man but now he seemed to be trying to start a fight with Ward. When he saw me,though, his eyes lit up. “Ah! Hyman! Tell this man I didn’t do it so I can go. I have to go to a suit fitting for Hall’s wedding, I’m the best man! A man only gets married for the third time once!”

“Unfortunately, Ryan, I cannot let you go. None of us are allowed to leave this room until I know who murdered that young man, Jack O’Ryan. Luckily for all of you,” I said, talking to the whole room now, “I am the best at my job and I’ll have you out here as soon as I can. Until then, I want to talk to each of you. Unless, of course, you want to make my job easier and the murderer can just tell me who they are.”

The room was silent.

“That’s what I thought, never that easy,” I said and sighed, reaching into my pocket. “Okay, well let’s get to the bottom of this.” I pulled out a pen and pad of paper, getting ready to make note of everything I had noticed. 

 

********

 

I started with Auston because he and Brownie were the ones who found the body and he knew the most about this kid. I wanted to get all the information that I could about what kind of person he was, and what kind of relationship he had with his coach. He seemed to be the most obvious suspect but I had a hard time believing it was him, the look he had on his face when he told me one of his players was dead was too genuine to be faked. And I was used to fakers in my line of work. I knew better than that though, you don’t build a case on intuition, although it can be a helpful guide.

“He’s a great kid, he always comes to practice on time and is in a good mood. Even after the huge losing streak we had to start the season he would come in the next day and brighten up the room. When I say we all loved him in here I meant it. I just thought…” Auston trailed off and put his head in his hands, “He was the next great thing, and if anything could get in his way I never thought that’d be his death.”

“It’s a sad day,” I agreed even as I wrote down what Auston had said, “Is there any reason why he would have been here so much earlier than the rest of the team? I thought you said they weren’t getting in till five, and based on the evidence we’ve gathered he must have shown up before even I did, which means you would have been the only one here who could have done it.”

“It must look so bad,” Auston shook his head solemnly, “but it wasn’t rare for Jack to come in early. He has a bad shoulder and he comes in a few hours early for extra work with the physical therapist most days. The poor kid, the PT told me to let Jack know that if he overworked his arm he’d be even more hurt, but he just didn’t want to stop. I didn’t have the heart to tell him not to.”

I nodded as I wrote that down too, “So Jack would have just been coming in when I was and he would have been mostly alone, correct?”

“Yes.”

“And that’s something anyone would have known if they had just followed his movements.”

“Yes, it wasn’t a secret. He liked to brag about being the first guy in the locker room even on practice days. He just wanted everyone to know how hard he worked.” Auston paused, “How do you know it was one of us, what if a guy did follow him in off the street?”

“You need credentials to get into that part of the building; the only people without ironclad alibis who had access are us,” I peered up at Auston, “Unless you gave them to someone else?”

“No, no of course not. It was just you guys, and I reported it to the administrators. You should have the full list of people who had access to that part of the building.”

“Then it’s one of us,” I said, “trust me Auston, I hate it more than you probably do but this is part of my job. It’s horrific to think one of your old friends could do something so terrible, but there are many different kinds of people in this world and it’s my job to find the particularly bad ones.” 

Auston nodded.

“I have one more question, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all, whatever you need, Detective.”

“I need to know exactly what happened and how you found the body. You were going for the generator I assume?”

“We were,” Auston said, “we’ve had power outages a lot recently but usually the generator would just turn on. When it didn’t I felt like I had to go do something. I know this building like the back of my hand, I know how to get to the generator room. However the lights came back on before we could get there, and we were standing right in front of the body, but it was just Brown and I. I don’t know what had happened to Mitch, but he was right there and then he wasn’t…”

I nodded, “Yes he told me he got separated from you. Didn’t he make any noise?”

“If he did, I didn’t hear it.” 

 

*******

 

Mitch was after Auston, it was the only next logical step. If he tried to sneak away from Auston that could have been incriminating. Besides he had changed the most since the team broke up, I couldn’t imagine anyone else I trusted least in this room.

“Tell me, how did you get separated from Auston again?” I asked him.

Mitch’s eyes shot around the room before he answered, “There must have been a turn I took that they didn’t. One minute I was there with them, the next I didn’t hear anything but my own breathing and foot steps. If this was 2030 I would have been terrified, but I just kept walking, no point in being a sitting duck, right? When the lights came back on I was somewhere else entirely, but I was near the locker room. I must have been walking in circles.”

“When you realized you got separated why didn’t you call out?” I asked, “That seems highly suspicious Mitch. There’s no way you could have still known your way around here, especially not in the dark, what if you ran into a wall? Surely you would have stayed put and called for help?”

Mitch scoffed at me, “Like a coward? Like a little boy who needs help? That might have been what everyone thought of me in Toronto but that’s not who I was in Boston and that’s not who I am today!”

“Then tell me how you knew your way around if you hadn’t been back here in so long? Is it possible you’ve been wandering around these halls recently?”

“That’s preposterous!” Mitch laughed, “I’m an assistant GM with the Boston Bruins, I have no extra time to go wandering around the Air Canada Centre! I didn’t know my way around the building which is why when the lights came back on I was so far away from Auston and Connor.”

I wrote down what Mitch had said and circled the passage about him not being a coward. It still didn’t line up to me. Any man in their right mind would have asked for help or made any kind of noise when he realized he wasn’t where he was supposed to be in a dark building. Maybe Mitch was right though, the Bruins may have toughened him up. It was also the second time the Incident of 2030 had been brought up. Maybe that had more to do with his story than I previously thought.

 

******

 

Marty would be my next target, but before that I went searching. I was very curious about this other room I had seen when the lights went out. How come that was the one room with the light still on? How come I hadn’t seen the door when the lights were on? Where did it lead to? Who was in the other room? Did they have something to do with the murder?

Constable Ward let me back into the players lounge for me to look around uninterrupted. The only exits I could see were the ones already accounted for, but I remembered where the light came from. I walked over to where I remembered seeing it and was surprised to find a stick rack in the way, but behind it i could clearly see the lines of a door. 

I called constable Ward over and told him to get someone who could take the rack down and open the door. He nodded and headed off quickly as I looked for more clues around the opening. I removed some of the errant sticks out of the way to read a little sticker I saw poking out from behind them. It was a warning sticker.

_ WARNING _ It read,  _ BACK UP GENERATOR _ .

“Interesting,” I said and scribbled it down in my notebook.

When Ward came back into the room with a few other men I told them about the sticker, and instructed them to tell me when they had access to the room immediately and to not step foot in there before I did. 

If that was a back up generator, it was a lot more relevant to this case than I had originally thought. 

 

******

 

“Marty, I need to know more about this Incident of 2030.” I said.

Matt made an uncomfortable face at my request but nodded like he understood. We were sitting side by side at the stalls and Martin had a cup of water in his hands that he looked down into when he started talking.

“A while ago, a few years before we won the cup together, Tuukka Rask did an interview with the NHLPA for Halloween. They asked him whether or not he thought the TD Garden was haunted, and he said no. It was a pretty funny video because Tuuks always had a way about him, when he answered questions, it was always dry and to the point,” Matt sighed wistfully. “It wasn’t until after I joined the Bruins that I realized why he had said that though. Tuukka didn’t think the TD Garden was haunted because it never had been before, but only because he was the one who personally drove them away, or so we thought.

You may remember that he was our goalie coach for a year or two after his retirement before they had to fire him because he kept making the goalie prospects cry and quit. It was a big deal in hockey news; he was one of the most successful goalies of our life time and he was going back to Finland.” Matt shook his head like he couldn’t believe it, even now, before he continued, “Anyway, I had already retired by 2030 but I was still in Boston, and Mitch was nearing the end of his career. That’s when the hauntings started up again. I mean, it’s a long story, but a lot happened in the halls of the TD Garden that year and Mitch came out a very different man. And they convinced Tuukka to come back, if only to just sit around the Garden and keep the ghosts away. Mitch was the one who was able to convince Tuukka to come back, it’s what got him the assistant GM job.”

I nodded, “Is it possible Mitch could have thought this was similar to that situation?”

Marty shrugged, “It didn’t seem similar to me, but if something happened when he was wandering around the dark hallways, if he saw something, maybe he reverted back to the same thinking and tried to figure something out on his own. Ever since he was traded from Toronto he hasn’t trusted anyone the same. Thinking he can fix everything on his own is what makes him so brilliant at being a GM, but it’s pretty foolish sometimes as well.”

By his tone he seemed worried about Mitch. I sighed and shook my head as I wrote down what Marty was saying. Some things never did change. 

 

*******

 

My next line of questioning was focused towards Kasperi Kapanen. He had been there when I had seen the light under the door and he had brought up that he thought it was suspicious, I was curious to see why he thought that.

“I mean when Air Canada bought the naming rights back from Scotiabank, the money they threw MLSE was huge. There’s no reason this arena should be having power troubles, especially with all the arena upgrades,” Kapanen explained, “it just seemed fishy to me is all.”

“Yeah,” Willy agreed from his spot next to Kap, “The Leafs were the wealthiest team in the league when we were rookies and they’ve just gotten wealthier, but the arena has been crumbling recently! All the power outages and leaks. I asked Auston what the arena upgrades were for and he said he wasn’t too sure yet. No one knows what Lou is doing in the front office anymore.”

“What did you think was going on at the time?” I asked them, “What suspicious activity did you think the power outages were covering up?”

“Not a murder, if that’s what you’re hinting at,” Kapanen scoffed, “mostly some sort of embezzlement scheme. Someone is using that money for something and it’s not the arena, apparently.”

“How familiar are you two with these power outages?” I asked them, “The only other two who knew had talked to Auston previously.”

Willy shrugged, “They’ve been in the news, you just need to know where to look.”

“Yeah,” Kapanen said, “We’ve been following this team even from our teams in Sweden, it’s not that hard to look up the weird happenings of the Air Canada Centre even across the ocean. It’s still the most popular hockey franchise in the world.”

“That it is,” I agreed. “Is it possible you guys came back to Toronto a few days earlier? Maybe revisited some of the old sights, walked around here a bit, caught a few games? Or was this your first day back in the city?”

“We just got in today,” Willy said, “Why?”

“Where did you guys come in from?”

“Boston.” Willy said.

“Stockholm.” Kapanen said.

I nodded and wrote that down in my notebook, “What were you doing in Boston, William?”

“Visiting Pastrnak.” 

 

*******

 

Ward called me into the other room after that, they had finally gotten into the extra room. It was dark and cramped, but I made sure to put on a plastic glove before I flipped the light switch. With the room illuminated I could see that it wasn’t much more than a utility closet with a big box in the corner. It didn’t look like a generator big enough for the building, but if it was attached to the rooms close by, that may be the answer to it. 

Before I approached the machine I looked around for a secondary light source that may not have been affected by the power outage. The room had been weird because of the light even as the rest of the building had gone dark. It didn’t take me long to find it either; off to the corner I saw a flashlight resting on a tool box. When I bent down to study it I realized it was quite possibly supposed to be in the toolbox but had been discarded messily before the person using it had dashed somewhere else. 

Without touching the flashlight I stood up and started looking around for the other exit. I spotted it at the other end of the room; the door was closed and it was definitely the main entrance. I walked up to the door and pushed it open so I could get a good look at it from the other side of the door. It looked like a regular white door, built into the wall like the other utility closets. It wasn’t blocked off from this side, so anyone would have been able to enter it. However, unless you knew what was behind it, I didn’t see any reason to pick this door specifically. 

It could have been a coincidence, that someone had wandered aimlessly into this room if they were lost in the dark, but seeing as it was the room with the back up generator and a flashlight, I found that very unlikely. Whoever was in this room had meant to be in this room at the time of the power outage. And that made them the number one suspect. Because of that I had to start scouring for clues. I let my men in at that time, to take the flashlight in for evidence as I continued to look around the room.

“Hey, Detective,” It was Ward.

“Yes?”

“Check this out.” 

I got up and walked over to where Ward was looking over the generator, he had his own police flashlight that he was using to check the area around the generator pointed at a folded up piece of paper on the ground. 

I reached over carefully, grabbing just the corner of it with my gloved fingers and picking it up, watching as the paper unfolded under the weight of itself.

On it was scribbled handwriting that looked oddly familiar to me. I couldn’t quite place it, but the words were more important than the writing.

_ One of us did it. I can’t tell you who. You won’t believe me. Just don’t let any of us leave until you figure it out.  _

“What’s that s’posed to mean?” Ward asked.

“That either this man did it and is trying to throw us off our trail, or that whatever happened here today is a lot more complicated than we originally thought,” I said before looking back at the paper. “This kid got caught up in something way bigger than him.”

 

********

 

“I know it may have seemed out of order when I blew up at you earlier, that maybe it came across as suspicious. But I assure you I was only concerned about the time passing, not actual guilt. It’s stressful to know you may be locked in a room with a murderer,” Nugent-Hopkins explained when I approached him to talk next. 

“Unfortunately, Ryan, it seems that the killer is definitely in this room right now,” I shook my head, “It’s such a shame too, I was so excited for this reunion. But there are more important things at hand now.”

“You’ll get a vacation sometime.”

“You seem pretty relaxed about a kid being murdered.” I pointed out.

Ryan shrugged, “I didn’t know him. It sure is sad that he had to die so young, but, and maybe this makes me selfish, it could have been any of us and I’m glad it wasn’t me.”

“Doesn’t look like that’s the case,” I said, “It happened before any of us had even arrived, whoever did this was targeting this kid specifically. I just can’t seem to find any proof that anyone here knew him. You’re the only one not even trying to pretend you cared for him.”

“And that makes me more or less suspicious?” Ryan asked, “I understand it may seem cold hearted, but I played the first 8 years of my career with the Edmonton Oilers, and most of those years we were the worst team in the league. I was supposed to be the savior but I wasn’t even the first who was put on that pedestal. It didn’t work with me, it didn’t work with Yak and it kept not working until McDavid came along. Then I was pushed aside while all my closest friends were forced to leave. So maybe my reaction is cold hearted, but couldn’t that just be because my heart  _ is _ cold and not because I’m a murderer? I’d be more suspicious of the guys who didn’t know this kid who seem heart broken over it. I would suggest Brownie but I think he cries over everything.”

I nodded, Ryan had a point. Maybe his reaction was weird compared to everyone else, but for Ryan this is the kind of response I would have guessed. I put a checkmark next to his name but didn’t cross him out just yet. 

 

*****

 

Auston stopped me before I could move on to interviewing Brown and Andersen next. His eyes were a little crazed like he couldn’t be kept in this room much longer without going crazy. The long scar on his chin was pulled taut from the tenseness of his face. The poor guy. I did feel bad for him, having to find his best player in a pool of his own blood. Reunions were one thing, but add a murder on top of that? It could ruin a man’s day.

“Have you found anything, Detective? Are there any leads?”

I sighed, “I can’t discuss the case with you Auston. But we haven’t ruled anyone definitively out yet.”

“Do you think it’s me? Do you think it’s Mitch? I saw you talking to Ryan…”

“Auston…”

“I know, I know I just feel so useless. I want to do something and be able to help. He was like a son to me, it just feels wrong to let you do all of the work. I should be trying to do something for him. Please tell me they’ve at least moved the body.”

“I can’t tell you that Auston, I’m here to talk to you guys, not deal with the body.”

Auston sighed, defeated.

“I could ask you a few question though.”

“Anything.”

“What do you know about that secondary generator room, and why was the door stopped?” I asked.

“Oh, that thing? I haven’t been in there for years. With the new arena upgrades the main generator has never had problems before. That one just turns the lights in here, the lounge, and the bathroom on so the players won’t get stuck in the dark if worst comes to worst,” Auston explained. “As far as I know there’s never been a reason to use it.”

“Why did Lou invest in another generator as opposed to new lighting?” I asked.

Auston shrugged, “I just have to do the best with what he gives me.”

“So when the power went out you went to go check on the main generator instead of the one right next to us?” I asked.

“The only access to that room is either from the way we went, or from the locker room. We would have had to walk all the way around anyway,” Auston said. “Besides, I was worried about whether something was wrong with the actual generator. We need this building to stay powered, and if the maintence guys were having problems I wanted to check on them. I don’t like feeling useless, Hyman and maybe it’s not my job to fix everything, but someone has to try.”

“I understand Auston. I think I need to go talk to Mitch again.”

 

*****

 

Mitch was sitting on his own off to the side when I approached him, and he seemed like he was concentrating really hard on something.

“Mitch?” I asked sitting next to him.

“Yes?” He asked, not turning to look at me.

“I talked to Marty about The Happening of 2030 and he said that may have influenced your decision to walk off on your own. I need to know if you did it on purpose or not, if maybe you found a room with a different generator in it? You were the only one off on your own at the time and I have reason to believe that the killer was not in the locker room at the time of the power outage.” I told him.

Mitch looked at me then. “I didn’t enter any room,” he said, “But I must confess something.”

“What is it?”

“I didn’t just wander away from Auston and Brown. Auston was bragging about how he was saving the Toronto Maple Leafs  _ again _ when I heard something to the left of us. Brown was so enraptured by what Auston was saying that neither of them noticed, but I did. It was a faint noise, like maybe a mouse or something, but I decided to follow it anyway. I turned down a different hallway than them and walked quietly after it. I don’t know if it knew I was following it or not, but suddenly there was the sound of a door opening and closing and then the lights came back on. That’s when I heard the screaming and realized I was near the locker room, that’s when I came rushing back. But I promise you, Zach, I never entered that room.”

That was interesting. “So someone besides you, Auston, and Brown was out during the power outage. But who could it have been?”

“I have no idea” Mitch said, “but it sounded like someone with maybe a little bit of a limp, they were walking weirdly. It was still quiet but it sounded uneven.”

I nodded, “I noticed something weird about the way the man was walking too, in the light.” I wrote that down on the piece of paper, “Why did you go off on your own? Did it have to do with The Happening?”

Mitch sighed, “After a while you get sick of people doing things for you. Eventually you need to start taking care of things yourself. And don’t get me wrong, I know people have a lot to say about how I felt after leaving the Leafs, and while it did hurt in a lot of ways I loved my time in Boston. I still love it there. It made me a stronger, more independent person and so maybe that is what I was thinking when it happened. Pastrnak was just telling me yesterday that…”

“Excuse me?”

“What?”

“You were with Pastrnak yesterday?” I asked him.

“Oh, yes,” Mitch said.

“Was Nylander with you guys?”

Mitch shook his head, “Not with us, but Pasta and I always have lunch on Thursdays alone. It’s possible Willy was with Pastrnak and just not at lunch with us.”

I nodded, “Thanks for the help, Mitch.”

“Of course.”

I finished writing down what Mitch had told me before getting up.

 

******

 

“I already talked to Auston and Mitch but I was wondering what your side of the story was, what happened when you guys went looking for the generator?” I asked Brownie. I was standing in front of him as he cowered against Freddie, biting at the cuticle of his thumb. I quickly jotted down that he seemed worried before I looked back up at him, waiting for his reply.

Brownie shrugged before he said, “As an NHL reporter I spend a lot of time in the ACC still. I’ve been aware of these power outages and I knew where Auston would have been headed. I thought I could help so I left with him. Auston was telling me all about the changes the Leafs were going through and I was paying a lot of attention to him. I know this is supposed to be like an off the clock sort of thing, but when one of the quietest coaches in the NHL starts giving you that kind of thing candidly you pay attention. When the lights came back on I was just about to step into a pool of blood and it was just Auston and I.”

“By any chance were you the one who screamed?” I asked.

Brownie sighed and looked down, “Yeah,” he mumbled.

“Okay, I’m not trying to embarrass you. I have suspicions someone else was out and about during the power outage and I needed to make sure that the scream was accounted for.”

“Of course,” Brownie said.

“Did you notice Mitch leaving? Did you hear anything or get any indication that he wasn’t there anymore?”

“No,” Brownie said, “I was paying such close attention to Auston trying to remember everything that he was saying so I could write it up later. Not that it mattered, that all left my mind once we found that kid. Jack O’Ryan, he was...such a good player.”

“Actually,” I said as something hit me, “You’re a reporter following the Leafs, right? What do you know about Jack O’Ryan? Anything that may help.”

“Oh, well,” Brownie said, seemingly caught off guard by my line of questioning, “He was a sweet kid, everyone always talked about how nice he was to them. I can’t imagine anyone that killed him knew him personally or even was in the city. I don’t think any Torontonian could find something negative to say about the kid. Sure he was from Boston, but he was part of our city now, you know? And he’s only been here for a few months.”

I nodded, “Auston couldn’t stop praising him.”

“No one could,” Brownie sighed, “He’s also been very good on the ice for the team too. He reminds me a lot of our rookie crop, you know? Skilled and fast and full of optimism. The kid had a 9 game point streak. They’re about to play the Habs too, tomorrow night I believe, and everyone was positive that he’d hit 10 games against them. Everyone’s scoring goals against the Habs, and him being on the Leafs top line would have almost ensured that. Everybody was so excited again.”

“Remind me Brownie, was he a winger or a centre?”

“Winger,” Brownie told me. 

“Thank you,” I said.

“You need to ask me anything?” Freddie cut in.

“Do you have anything you think I need to hear?” 

“Well,” Freddie said, “before I came in today, Brownie was preoccupied and ran to talk to Sosh the moment he saw him but I stayed back. I wasn’t paying too much attention, but then I heard arguing behind me and turned around. Morgan and Jake were walking in together but they seemed very angry with one another. Their voices were hushed but I couldn’t help but eavesdrop. Morgan kept saying that it was all Jake’s fault. That Jake’s decisions were going to get them in trouble. I didn’t think anything of it at the time but it doesn’t sit right with me now, knowing what I know.”

I wrote that down hurriedly, “Thank you, Freddie, that could help a lot.”

“Of course.” 

 

********

 

Before I could go talk to Jake and Morgan, Constable Ward called me back into the player’s lounge. When I stepped through into the room he held up a plastic bag. “We found this on the note in the room. We can send it into the lab to test it for DNA but I think you’ll find it useful just looking at it.”

I peered into the bag and saw a strand of hair. It was shorter but it was also, more notably, blond. I took the bag to look at it more closely. Yes, a DNA test would help here, but those could take forever, and only a few of the men in the room were blond. It definitely would help me narrow down my suspects.

“Thank you, Ward, this could be very valuable.” 

“No problem, Detective.”

 

*******

 

Jake and Morgan weren’t sitting next to each other, but I had to interview them both next. Not only had Freddie’s testimony been damning, but they were both blond. 

I decided to talk to Morgan first, as he was usually the easier one to talk to.

“You think I had something to do with this?” Morgan asked, “I’m sure you have your reasons, Detective, but I have no connection to the kid or the Maple Leafs anymore. I loved my time here and the city, but when I moved on from hockey I moved on. Even if I were capable of murder I don’t see what reason I could have for murdering a Leafs rookie I had never met.”

“You were seen outside of the ACC this morning making incriminating comments to Jake Gardiner, I need to ask you about those.”

Morgan made an uncomfortable face but did not immediately elaborate.

“Is it true that you kept saying ‘it’ was all Jake’s fault and that Jake was going to get the two of you in trouble?”

“I guess it is true I said that, yes, but it had nothing to do with this case,” Morgan told me, “Jake and I fight, a lot more now than back when we were on the team. We’re business partners, and working with him can be very frustrating. It was the same when we played together but there were times when he was a better player than I was. Now, with our line of work, he’s not the brightest and it’s just annoying when he has just as much power as I do but...less of an ability to make the important decisions. You know how we used to joke about him being a space case? It’s worse now. It’s terrible.”

“Then what possibly could you have been talking about?” I asked.

Morgan sighed, “We were trying to get government funding for a new area of market research that would have helped our business. I wasn’t able to go to the meeting so Jake had to go alone, I gave him talking points and everything and he still whiffed it. We lost the government contract and we were really relying on that to cover overhead. Now we’re stuck with angry investors and people we need to pay back with money we do not have. If he had just...listened to me it would have…” Morgan shut his eyes and sighed before opening them again, “either way it has nothing to do with O’Ryan and his murder. I know it must have sounded incriminating but I promise it had nothing to do with it.”

I nodded, “Thank you for clearing that up Mo, did you notice anything else?” I asked.

“No, but I was talking to Borgman and he brought up the power outages before they even happened. I thought that was odd. He said he’s been here for a few days, coming back and forth between the games and stuff and talked to some of the people up in the suite he was in. They were talking about Lou and how the team is trying to portray hope but it couldn’t have been something the organization really believed because they were letting the ACC turn to rubble. Borgman said someone else said something about the generators and how the generator always kicked in just in case, but if not there was a hidden room near the locker room that had a generator for the players in case they were stuck in the dark. I just thought that it was weird he knew so much about them.”

“That is weird,” I said, “is there a reason he was telling you this? Did you think he was trying to, I don’t know, prove something? Or was it out of the blue?”

“He seemed nervous?” Mo said, “Like he had to get something done you know, like he was busy.” He stopped. “You don’t think he could have done this? I mean he doesn’t have any reason to either. As far as I know this is the first time he’s come back to North America since he left to play in the Swedish league.”

“I’m not ruling anyone out,” I said, “but this has been very helpful Mo, thank you.”

 

********

 

I had to go check Mo’s story with Jake after that, but I couldn’t keep my mind off of Andreas. I had to collect all the evidence I could before I started accusing people, but so far Andreas and Morgan were the only ones who seemed to know about the back up generator. That was pretty damning on its own. Even so, Mo could have been lying to cover his own guilt; I couldn’t rule anyone out and I had to keep that in mind. Jake, I thought, would be a good piece toward finishing this puzzle.

Jake scoffed when I relayed the story Mo told me. “I didn’t whiff it and we didn’t lose the contract, he’s overreacting. He’s just bossy. Ever since they chose Auston to be captain instead of him he had this weird complex about controlling everyone, like he had to make up for the fact that he wasn’t named captain. It was all bullshit. I just went about it in a way he wouldn’t have, and they haven’t given us an answer yet. It’s not out of the ordinary.”

“Okay,” I said slowly, “but still, that’s what he was blaming you for?”

“Oh yes, that part is true,” Jake said, “he was blaming me for something completely ridiculous but it still wasn’t murder. I mean, Mo will be the first one to say it, I’m not smart enough to murder anyone.”

I nodded, “That may be true,” I said, “but I just need to cover all my bases. There are a lot of guys here who have changed. You just never know. I wish I could vouch for every guy in this room, but I just can’t. You’d be surprised what some of your old friends are capable of. Before this day I never would have thought I’d be suspecting you and Mo, but after I heard about the fight you two became my primary suspects.”

“Really?” Jake asked, “Have you checked out Borgy?”

“Why? What’s up with Andreas?”

Jake shrugged. “When the lights came back on Borgman was opening the door next to me. He said he was just peeking out into the hallway to see what was going on, but it looked like he was coming in, not going out.”

I wrote that down, “Which door?”

“It was the door that ran along the back of the room. That hallway intersects with the one Auston, Brownie and Mitch were heading towards when they left. I wouldn’t be surprised if they saw him.”

“When was this?” I asked.

“It was right around the same time that Mitch came in. That must have been why no one noticed. He was being really quiet and Mitch was being really loud.”

“Borgman? Really?”

Jake shook his head. “I don’t see why he would do it, he has no reason to. But maybe that injury just changed him.”

“Injury?” I asked.

Jake said, “Didn’t you hear? He had to retire a few years ago because he sustained a knee injury when he was playing in Sweden. He has a limp now and everything. I didn’t think that much had changed but...I mean do you ever really know a person?”

“I guess not.” I said.

 

******

 

After corroborating Mo’s story with Jake I turned my attentions to Andreas. I didn’t want to interview him in the same room I had interviewed anyone else. If he was the one who left the note in the room with the second generator, I wanted to make sure he had no distractions when I talked to him. And how could he not be! He was blond, he had a limp, and Jake had seen him coming back into the room around the same time that Mitch had come back in. It was perfect. 

If Andreas was the murderer I needed to speak to him more privately.

I told the guard at the door to watch Andreas particularly closely as I pulled Constable Ward to the side to explain to him everything that I had found. He agreed with me that we needed to talk to Borgman in private so we pulled him aside into the player’s lounge and sat him down at the table, opposite of us.

“Is there any reason why I’m the only one you guys had to pull into a different room to talk to?” He seemed uncomfortable. “This hardly seems necessary.”

“Well, Andreas, have you seen this before” I asked and passed the note across the table. It was in a plastic bag now too, locked away as evidence.

He eyed the paper and looked back up at us, “Why?”

“That’s not an answer.”

Andreas coughed and looked at the note that was now in front of him. “Yes,” he said, “I wrote it but I didn’t do anything else.”

“You didn’t do anything else?” I asked, “You wrote a note saying you know who the murderer is but you didn’t do anything else? How am I supposed to buy that?”

“Fine,” Andreas put his hands up, “I...I don’t really know where to begin with this.”

“Well,” I said, “You could start with why you killed Jack.”

Andreas looked alarmed, “I didn’t kill Jack! You have no proof I killed Jack! He was killed before I even arrived here, check my alibi.”

“How do you know he was murdered before everyone else got here? Especially if you weren’t here like you claimed.”

“I overheard the real killer talking about it.”

“You did? When was this?”

“As I was walking in. He mentioned where the body was, that’s how I knew to shut the generator off when the power went out. I knew that if it didn’t come back on someone would go down by the room and find the body by the time the light came back on. It was right there in front of the room.” 

I stopped, “You knew the body was outside the generator room, so you went to go turn the generator off instead of reporting the body yourself.”

Andreas shook his head, “It looks bad,” he said, “if I had been the one to find the body after overhearing Jack O’Ryan had been killed no one would have believed me. I was alone. I’ve been alone since coming to Toronto, the only people who have seen me were the ones who were telling me about the power outages, which would have given me opportunity. The real killer has an alibi. If I had accused him it would have looked extra bad on me. But I know you’re the best detective out there, it’s all everyone was talking about during the games. They’d say, ‘Hyman! Great player even better detective, there’s nothing he can’t find out.’ So I trusted you would have figured it out.”

“Unfortunately, Andreas” I said, “The only evidence we found was that note and a blond hair.”

Andreas shook his head, “You have more evidence, evidence that points towards someone else here, not me. Yes I was in the second generator room, yes I wrote the note, and that is probably my hair. But I am not the killer.”

I stared him down, trying to read his features. Was what he was saying true? Could I really believe him? The cover up was outlandish, it could have been the perfect crime, or a desperate bid! It seemed something no smart criminal would concoct, too hard to believe. But at the same time, part of it made sense. Humans, when faced with unbelievable situations, do unbelievable things sometimes. I’ve seen it all the time in my line of work. But if I had more evidence who could it be? Andreas knew, but would he tell me?

I looked down at my notepad before looking back up at him, “I suppose it’d be too easy to ask who the killer is.”

Andreas nodded, “If you don’t figure it out yourself, if you don’t  _ believe _ it, I’ll take the fall for this. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Well, you and the killer were not the only people walking in at the same time. He had to have been talking to someone else.”

Andreas nodded again, “Only one man committed the murder. I’m not the only one who knows he did it; he has someone else here to confirm his made up alibi. But we weren’t the only ones. We walked in with Nazem and Ryan as well.”

“I talked with Ryan and he didn’t mention this. If all this is true why were you the only one to have overheard them?”

Andreas leaned forward and lowered his voice, “There’s a reason only I would have heard them, Detective, and I think you know what that reason is.”

 

*******

 

I barged into the locker room with Andreas trailing behind me. The loud entrance was enough to draw everyone’s attention to us. I scanned the room even as the voices settled down; it was a little unnerving the way everyone had slowly tracked me with their eyes, but I was  only paying attention to a very specific person.

“Ryan Nugent-Hopkins,” I said smirking towards him.

He looked at me alarmed, and pointed at the center of his chest, frozen like a deer in headlights. “Me?” He stammered.

“When is your suit fitting?”

Ryan turned his wrist towards himself. “In 40 minutes,” he said reading from his watch.

“I have good news: you’ll be able to go, I’ve figured out who the killer is.”

A murmur came over the room and I heard them whispering about whether or not it was Andreas.

“Brown,” 

The room was full of shocked gasps and Brownie looked like he was about to faint.

“Z-Zach, c’mon you know I’d never...I mean I…”

“What was it you said Jack O’Ryan was about to accomplish tomorrow night?” I asked him, shutting up his worried stammering.

His eyes widened again in a different kind of surprise, a relieved one, “Oh...he was about to extend his point streak to 10 games.” He looked around shyly, like knowing that was a bad thing before he continued on meekly, “The Leafs are playing the Montreal Canadiens who are the worst team since the Washington Capitals only won 8 games. Everyone’s scoring on them and what with him being on the top line, it’s pretty much a forgone conclusion.”

“And that has been well televised, that he’s about to do this, yeah?”

“Oh yeah!” Brown nodded, “It’s the leading story for the game, I mean it’s Hockey Night in Canada, everyone’s been talking about it. Even in the United States and Europe. I mean, it’s being covered everywhere.”

“Why is it such a big deal?” I asked.

“Oh, well! He’ll be the first rookie to have a point streak this long since…”

“Enough!” Nylander stood then, his eyes alight with anger as he stared me down, “You don’t know what you’re doing Hyman! You don’t know what you’re saying!”

“Really? What were you doing for lunch yesterday?”

“I told you,” Nylander said, “Pasta and I were together, we had lunch.”

“Liar!” Mitch stood and pointed to Nylander, “David and I have lunch every Thursday and you weren’t there with us. Were you in Boston at all?”

Nylander ignored Mitch and continued to stare me down, “It doesn’t matter, none of you would have understood anyway. Kapanen was always the only one I could trust on this team even back in the glory days. Ever since Mitch and Auston, I was a nobody. I was moved up and down the lineup like a spare part! It was always Mitch and Auston, never mattered what I did. And the one thing I had, this kid, this  _ nobody _ , was going to steal my title? You think I’d let that happen? Never.”

“I was moved up and down the lineup too,” Mitch said, still standing, “I wasn’t even on the first line. It was you and Zach and Auston, I never had any consistent linemates.  _ I _ was the one who was shipped off after we won, the one that was thrown away. I was the one who got sick and injured my rookie year. I was the one thrown to the side. You have no idea what you’re talking about!” 

“You have glory,” Nylander turned to him, “You have 4 stanley cups as a player and could manage the Bruins to another one. You got the trophies and the job and, as if all of that weren’t enough, you got  _ Pastrnak _ .”

“Why didn’t you kill me then?” Mitch asked.

Nylander scoffed, “Listen, I’m not an idiot. After what happened in Boston I know you aren’t scared of anything, and also you could kill me.”

Mitch shrugged, “Okay, fair.” 

“Wait, no,” Auston said waving his hands, “He killed Jack because he’s defenseless, that’s not  _ fair. _ ”

“I mean, it makes a little more sense,” Nazem said, “like, if you’re gonna kill someone, make sure you can actually kill them. Don’t go after the man who had the balls re-hire Tuukka Rask after he was fired so brutally.”

“Anyway!” I said putting my hands up, “William Nylander you are under arrest for the murder of Jack O’Ryan, and Kasperi Kapanen you’re under arrest for being an accessory to the murder of Jack O’Ryan.” As I said it the two guards approached both men, handcuffing them and patting them down. 

I couldn’t resist the smug smile that was creeping on my face.

Afterwards, when I was leading Nylander to the cop car he stopped in front of the open door and turned to me. “I just have one question,” he said, “how did you figure out it was me?”

“You and Kapanen are not the only two here that can speak Swedish.”

And with that I shoved him into the car and closed the door.

You really never know someone.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading it guys comments and kudos mean the world to me! and if you want to talk about it further I have a tumblr @ mitchmarnersnohomopillow


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